Cricketer Chris Cairns arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London this week. Photo / Chris Gorman
Cricketer Chris Cairns arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London this week. Photo / Chris Gorman
Opinion
Business Insider wonders if Southwark Crown Court could be accused of its own spot of fixing.
This, of course, is extremely unlikely.
Instead, it must be mere coincidence that two New Zealanders this week appeared in neighbouring London courtrooms, both denying allegations of rigging in their particular professions.
The first, in Southwark's courtroom one, was former international cricketer Chris Cairns, who is defending charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
The other, in courtroom two, was Wellington resident and British expat Darrell Read, accused of trying to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, better known as Libor.
Darrell Read is defending charges for conspiracy to defraud. / AP
Both trials opened this week, with prosecutors laying down the allegations to their respective juries.
While the Cairns trial will be closely watched by sporting fans, the Libor case is attracting a similar level of attention in the business world.
So far we've heard that Read, known as "Big Nose" among his colleagues, allegedly offered an English colleague "copious amounts of curry" in return for help to fix Libor rates.
While Cairns will be fronting up to Southwark for only a month, Read and his five co-accused face a 14-week trial, with a break included for Christmas.
There is unlikely to be much seasonal cheer among the group, who face charges for conspiracy to defraud.
The six allegedly helped Tom Hayes, a former Tokyo-based UBS and Citigroup trader, profit from his yen derivatives trades.
Hayes, jailed for 14 years in August following an earlier trial, was the "central figure" who sought to manipulate the brokers, prosecutors said this week.
The 35-year-old trader, who was nicknamed "Rain Main" by colleagues, is appealing his conviction and sentence.
Driving on
VW boss Tom Ruddenklau / Rod Emmerson .
You've got to hand it to car sales people, they are indefatigable in the most trying of circumstances.
As Volkswagen New Zealand chief Tom Ruddenklau was forced to admit the brand's global emissions-cheating scandal had washed up on our shores, he was happy to give a Herald reporter advice on buying a new car.
Told that his interrogator's first pride and joy had been a 1959 VW Beetle (bought in the late 1970s for $1000), he quipped: "You must be ready for a new one, mate."
Davina Murray leaves the Auckland High Court in 2012.
A dozen lawyers were struck off in the 12 months to June, which Business Insider is certain is more than any other year on record.
While only slightly up on the 10 badly behaved barristers struck off in the same period in 2014, this year's crop was twice as large as in the year to June 2013.
It is also a good deal more than the three shown the door in 2009.
The dishonour roll of 2015 includes disgraced ex-lawyer Davina Murray, who in February was found "not a fit and proper person to operate as a legal practitioner" by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal.
Murray was convicted and sentenced to 50 hours' community work in 2013 for smuggling an iPhone, cigarettes and a lighter to her client, convicted murderer Liam Reid, in Mt Eden Prison.
At trial she initially tried to argue the items were planted on Reid by Corrections officers but finally acknowledged her guilt at sentencing in a letter to the court.
Former police prosecutor Brent Thomson was another lawyer who fell foul of the tribunal and was struck off in the year to June.
Thomson admitted a charge brought by the New Zealand Law Society after being convicted of use and possession of methamphetamine and possession of cannabis.
Bad language
Talking of being struck off, Business Insider was interested to learn the Companies Office is fussing over the language used when a firm is removed from its register.
The Registrar of Companies, Mandy McDonald, said this week she was conscious the term "struck off" could have negative connotations.
"The vast majority of companies that are removed from the register do so voluntarily. By changing the language, we hope that any stigma associated with the current terminology will disappear," McDonald told the Law Society.
A Companies Office spokesman confirmed the organisation was intending to make the change but had yet to set a firm date.
Given the companies register has long been abused by overseas criminals trading on New Zealand's good reputation, Business Insider thinks the Registrar should focus her attention on striking off these firms rather than worrying about what to call the exercise.
